The Democratic Party on Thursday demanded that Defense Minister Tomomi Inada resign for allegedly downplaying the seriousness of the South Sudan conflict by not describing it as "fighting" — a term would have required the Ground Self-Defense Force to withdraw.
At the Diet, Democratic Party lawmaker Yuichi Goto criticized the government for "having concealed" the situation in South Sudan by not describing the conflict as fighting.
By law, fighting cannot occur between non-state actors, thus any GSDF troops engaging in U.N. peacekeeping activities must be withdrawn from areas where conflict specifically described as fighting takes place.